Bosnia, Croatia sign deal to stop justice evasion

Some 50 people have fled to Bosnia after being found guilty by a Croatian court, while around 100 have gone the other way.

SARAJEVO, February 10, 2010 (AFP) - Bosnia and Croatia on Wednesday inked a deal that allows convicts with dual citizenship to serve jail terms in either country to stop them evading justice by fleeing from one to the other.

"We need dual citizenship, it is useful to our nationals, but it should not be compromised by such cases of abuse," the Bosnian Serb SRNA agency quoted Croat Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic, who signed the deal with his Bosnian counterpart Barisa Colak, as saying.

The two countries have a policy of not extraditing their nationals, enabling those who are citizens of both, including those found guilty of war crimes, of playing one off against the other.

Some 50 people have fled to Bosnia after being found guilty by a Croatian court, while around 100 have gone the other way.

The best-known example is Croat parliamentarian Branimir Glavas, who fled to Bosnia early last year after being sentenced by a Zagreb court to 10 years in jail for crimes committed during Croatia's 1991-1995 war.

However, the deal signed in Sarajevo cannot apply to Glavas yet as his verdict is not final.

A similar deal between Bosnia and Serbia is to be signed in Belgrade at the end of this month, the Serbian justice ministry said.